Another Day, Another Victimized Culture …

… and another
disgraceful episode of University self-censorship. An article at
Inside Higher Ed describes how a university took down
a course website because it
contained and described art depicting
historical events in what a pressure group deemed to be a culturally
insensitive and racist manner.
Others accused the professors of cultural insensitivity,
and recommended they be fired.

OK, now fill in the blanks: the university is MIT. The professors are
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian
John W. Dower, and Shigeru Miyagawa,
a professor of linguistics and of foreign languages and literature.
The course is "Visualizing Cultures". The art in question consists of
wood-block
prints used as Japanese propaganda in the Sino-Japanese War of
1894-1895. As you might expect, the Chinese opponents aren't pictured
respectfully in all cases. And the "racism" in question is based in that
depiction.

The article goes into some detail on the firestorm generated by
the MIT Chinese Student and Scholar
Association (the major, if not the whole, source of the
complaints). The CSSA's complaint to the MIT administration
is here;
they profess to be "disappointed at the nonchalance with which this
emotionally provocative and demeaning material was presented" and
"appalled at the lack of accessible explanations and the proper
historical context that ought to accompany these images."

Without getting into the details or accuracy of the charges:
their feelings were hurt. Once the well-tuned machinery
of Cultural Offense was put into motion, it was only a couple
days before the offending pictures were removed from the web
and apologies issued. The response of MIT and the professors
can be read here;
the CSSA's response to that is here.
In addition to the self-censorship, MIT has apparently promised
to "organize a public forum to facilitate a discussion on the use of
sensitive imagery."

However, the "Throwing off Asia" exhibit recently Spotlighted on MIT's
homepage has shaken our confidence in the cultural sensitivity we have
come to associate with this accepting environment.

Lesson for University administrators: setting up a culturally sensitive
"accepting environment" doesn't make it less likely that
the cultures you are coddling will confront you over some outrage
to their sensibilities; it makes it more likely, since
you've (ironically) made them far more sensitive to even minor perceived
offenses against their worldview.

From MIT's official response, emphasis added:

One section of the web site -- Throwing Off Asia -- authored by
Professor Dower, refers to the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 and
displays images of Japanese wood-block prints that were used as wartime
propaganda.

Is there any reason for the words I've bolded above, other than
so people can read it as:
"Hey, it wasn't the Japanese professor who put up
the the pictures you're griping about; it was the other guy!"

Immediately after the section quoted above comes:

Some of these images show the atrocities of war and are examples of how
societies use visual imagery as propaganda to further their political
agendas. The use of these historical images is not an endorsement of the
events depicted.

<sarcasm>That's a really important point to make. Because, you
know, otherwise, we might think MIT did endorse war atrocities
and propaganda.</sarcasm>.

Fearless prediction: the response of Universities to cultural pressure
groups makes this sort of thing extremely likely to happen over and
over. Pressure works, whether accompanied by violent threats (as with
the Muhammed cartoons), or in its absence. Modern academe simply lacks
the language (or the spine) to stand up to such bullying.
As a result, there's little
to stop higher education
on its trip down down the slippery slope into complete smiley-face
inoffensiveness. And worthlessness. (Also check out this
post
at the Torch from Sean Clark.)

URLs du Jour

2006-05-01

It's a cliché to point out that The Simpsons
isn't as good as it used to be. Amazingly, they totally
turned it around last night with a hilarious satire
on the Harvard/Larry Summers controversy and sex differences
in general. Principal Skinner
inadvertently makes Unacceptable comments in public;
as a result, he's demoted to assistant groundskeeper, and
a new principal (voiced by Frances McDormand) is brought in and immediately
makes Springfield Elementary girl/boy segregated. Lisa is unchallenged
by "girl's math", and poses as a boy to escape to the other side. Hijinx
ensue. If you missed it, try to catch a rerun.

Not to be missed is Shawn Macomber's account
of a recent visit by John Edwards to Portsmouth, NH. Two point five
years until the presidential election, and Shawn even now
is getting a little
tired of the transparently dishonest rhetoric.

"A flood of whites move out to the suburbs, send their kids to private
schools," [Edwards] continued. "Or they move into the richest areas of town.
This is so unhealthy. It is unhealthy for our democracy. It is unhealthy
for our country."

It's a fascinating argument from someone who bought a 100-acre plot in
Chapel Hill, North Carolina, last year, which he has presumably not
adapted into a refugee camp for the Other Americans. …

As you may have heard, John Kenneth Galbraith has passed away. I
remember he and William F. Buckley Jr. were huge friends; it's
a tribute, I suppose, to both of them that they could get along
even though their political beliefs had approximately nothing
in common.

Jeff Taylor, however, is under no restrictions of friendship
when looking
at Galbraith. He considers Galbraith's "most enduring legacy"
to be "the secular guilt-trip that questions every motive and denies
every choice."

Another Jeff, Goldstein this time, explains
why I might be voting Democrat for President
in 2008, if the Republicans nominate a certain Arizona Senator
with (as Jeff puts it) a "benevolent tyrant's soul".

Vote for Hillary? Edwards? Kerry? Gore?
Hm. Well, I could just spend Election Day
cowering under my desk, I suppose. And then stay there
for four years.

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